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Topic: Dichotic

We've talked before about the shock people experience when they discover they are pronouncing a particular word in their own unique way: that is, wrong. We recently heard from a fellow who had been chagrined to realize that not only had he been pronouncing dichotic in his own way; he had also ascribed the adjective its own meaning. He and his friends, he said, were using dichotic to mean "divided into two parts;" when he checked the dictionary he discovered dichotic means "affecting or relating to the two ears differently in regard to a conscious aspect (as pitch or loudness) or a physical aspect (as frequency or energy) of sound." The dich- in dichotic comes from the Greek term for "in two; asunder;" -otic comes from the Greek otikos, "of the ear."

So why might a person—our correspondent—have assumed dichotic meant something along the lines of "dividing into two parts or groups?" Because it's easy to assume dichotic is a back-formation of dichotomy, whose Greek ancestor, dichotomous, meant "to cut in half." But in fact, dichotomous has a well-established sense (and dichotomic a somewhat less-established sense) as an adjective form of the noun dichotomy.

So should our correspondent change his ways? We're of two minds. There's some evidence other folks are using dichotic the way he is, but that evidence is fairly limited.

Questions or comments? Write us at wftw@aol.com Production and research support for Word for the Wise comes from Merriam-Webster, publisher of language reference books and CDs including Merriam-Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, Eleventh Edition.

I wonder how many of these words of the day are going to be on my GRE test. It is quite amusing to read the antic dotes though. They will probably help me remember all of them.